Rules rules?

21-March-2025

Post by @djuniou@sigmoid.social

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Sorry for the flashbang. I tried putting a spoiler thing so that the video would only appear when you clicked on it, but after a while I just wanted to play Monster Hunter Rise again. I promise next time I'll trie to put the video itself. But hey. Say hi in fedi!

Yes! The floppy disks are spiting data. That's what these little robots eat. They need it to stay alive! Every time we have less than five bots on the screen, one of the spawners spawns a new one.

These bots have eight "tact sensors" around them. These are basically collision areas. They use these to decide which direction they go. Right now they are cowards! That is, they go in the opposite direction of where they were touched! Even food scares them.

I have been thinking on what rules I should create to control these little guys. The goal is to get relevant variability in their behavior. But what I mean by that? Well. I could put a ton of sensors and rules using their input, but...at some point wouldn't the output behavior look a lot like random? Or even if they had a pattern to it, would we be able to extract meaningful information when we consider the inputs? Or even if they eventually create something interpretable...would it take too long? Or if the rules are too simple. Wouldn't they all look the same?

I'm doing this thinking on evolving something like multicellularity. I'll add a way for these guys to be able to attach themselves. Maybe we can see specialization arise: Some bots focused on moving left, others on moving up to create unique movement patterns...

Is there a defined trade-off to where we have "good" or "relevant" emergent behavior? Maybe I should be clearer with what is "good" or "relevant". I think for now, behavior that allowed a long life should be enough.

Oh well. Should think more about this. I'll be updating the rules with some simpler stuff and also change the food a bit. See you next time!